Gazidis apologises to Arsenal fans

Last night Ivan Gazidis invited members of the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST) and the Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association (AISA) to the Emirates for Christmas drinks and, flanked by Mark Gonnella, Tom Fox and Ken Friar, handled a potentially volatile situation with frank honesty which is understood to have won over most of those in attendance.

Rejecting another chance to spout well-honed platitudes, the Arsenal CEO admitted that the current state of affairs was just not good enough and that everybody in the club was working to fix what many (if you believe that cunny Stuart Robson) believe is a broken club.

“I think I am frankly tired of getting up here and delivering the same message,” Gazidis told assembled fans.

“Tuesday night was not good enough and it made us all upset and angry.

“I would like to apologise to all of you, especially the fans who travelled up there. It was unbelievable support as ever and you deserved better.

“That is something we will work hard to put right. We all work here and are desperate to deliver the success and trophies we all want.”

While it’s great that those fans who attended last night left the stadium feeling like they’d been treated with respect by the club’s hierarchy – not exactly the case following the recent AGM – it remains to be seen whether the same candid tone is used through official channels to placate the millions of Arsenal fans around the globe who also put their heart and soul into supporting the club.

Apologies are easy, as you and the rest of the board are getting used to apologising. Whether it’s for losing 8-2 or going out to a league 2 side in penalties. Pay your quality players the industry average and sell the bad ones or ask them to take a pay cut.

What is the industry average? £200k? Oil rich clubs have spoilt the mentality of even some of the most decent footballers. Most clubs in the premiership (who arent backed by sugar daddys or aren’t ManUre) actually have a wage system closer to ours.

He apparently apologised on behalf of Gervinho for being one of the worst players to wear an AFC shirt and promised AW won’t pick him again until
he can show how to pass,trap a ball,shoot,tackle or anything else a 60k a week player should do better than you and me.

Gervinho was a good player in France. Twice as many goals and assists as Hazard in his final season – and highly respected and praised by Hazard. He was pretty good in his first weeks with us, too, scoring for fun, if you remember. So what happened? Talented players don’t lose their talent overnight for no reason, so rather than dismissing Gervinho as rubbish, it might be more useful to ask what it is about the training or the atmosphere at the club that has drained him of his ability.

He’s not the only player to have taken a step (or several steps) backwards in the last years. Arshavin, Chamakh, Ramsey… even Vermaelen isn’t looking as good as he was.

Walcott will be an interesting test (a test, I fear, that could soon be depressing the shit out of us). How many goals will be scoring at Chelsea, United, City, wherever and how much more assured will be look? If it happens, it’ll be a new thing for us. Gone will be the days when players who left turned into pale and miserable shadows of the talents they had been under Wenger.

Its’ not about money. Sagna wants to go, Walcott wants to go (and become a huge matchwinner at Manure) and van Persie left (to become a huge matchwinner at Manure).
They want to leave because they want to play in a proper team and WIN games
This is the moment van Persie decided to leave The Arsenal
(21 January 2012) Arsenal 1 Manchester United 2 – (75th minute).http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2090345/Robin-van-Persie-furious-Arsene-Wenger.html
Go to that page and read the prescient comments about van Persie leaving.

What would you do in his shoes? Resign in protest at the doomed policy the club has been pursuing? Gazidis isn’t going to do that, not when it would involve the sacrifice of a salary of over 2m a year. Nor’s he going to let on to Kroenke that the asset-stripping on which we’ve been living for years will be hitting a roadblock when we’ve run out of players to sell. Nah, he’s got his head screwed on, has Gazidis. He’s got his comfy job to look after; he needs to keep Kroenke believing.

To the fans, he’ll do the outpourings of anguish – I’m one of you, my heart is aching, etc. – and his twenty-minute spiel about the moral superiority of not having an owner who invests in the club, and our moral responsibility to football and helping out the West Broms and Evertons of the world. To Kroenke, who neither watches us nor knows where we are in the table, he’ll be saying ‘Hang in there, mister, profits heading your way; the all-singing, all-dancing, revenue-generating soccer investment is a rip-roaring success and any moment now the Glazers will be bowing to kiss your big toe. This is what chief-execs do, recite their lines, knowing them to be lies, over and over and over again.

Do what? I mean I find the apology hollow, but we’re stuck and we’re fucked. And it’s because of Kroenke. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it: His teams don’t win.

The Nuggets are eternally average.

The Rams have a losing record over the tenure of his ownership (granted only a couple of years, but that’s not an organization that looks like it’s going to be a contender).

He did win a Stanley Cup with the Avalanche, but that’s because he bought a team (and one that had been for sale for a while) right before their Cup winning season started, meaning all of the important pieces (Sakic, Forsberg, Roy, Borque, Drury) were already in place. Since then, downhill.

And the Rapids have a single MLS Cup, but that season they were one of the lowest seeds in the playoff. If it had been a single table like futbol everywhere else in the world, they would have been 7th. Hell, they were the 5th best team in their own division. They got to the playoffs and got on a roll. Good for them, but they were hardly a dominant team.

So all of those teams, they are all average. If that. Of the two trophies, he can hardly take credit for the first of them. For the other, they were the 7th best team in the league. We aren’t getting better and we aren’t likely winning anything with Silent Stan.

As for Gazidis, he strikes me as the kind of person who had someone tying his shoes for him until he was 13 or 14 years old.

So…accepting mistakes makes everything go away……
As I understand…e.g…two choices below..
1. Acknowledging u don’t have enouin the tank before setting off for a big trip
2. Doing it while on the trip
3. Doing it after your stuck.

By trip. I mean more than one season…
So 3 is not good enough….if Arsenal as it is un like a business then Ivan & co have failed..thus corporate sense dictates them to be laid off/fired..

Same story every day… Not sack the manager? What else should we do? It’s not and never been about money. Almunia was our Keeper for about 4yrs when we were making record profits every year so enough with the money aspect.

We have a stubborn and egotistic manager who no one seem to bee able to sack… Which other club in the world would tolerate what we have for all these years with this manager… Please..just one big club…

A proper winger, another striker, and a midfield destroyer, yes yes yes.
Regardless of whether Walcott is leaving or not, Gervinho is proving woefully short for this level (all he does is provide cut-backs), and I don’t like the thought of having to rely on the Ox. He’s still to raw and young, there’s still so much to come from him and I don’t want him played out. Not to mention the fact that he also provides his own share of frustration, albeit less often than the other wingers….
The need for another striker is also something Arsene has come out with publicly, nuff said. We currently have no backup for our CF, and if we put Podolski in that role (something I’m not sure is suited for him, since Arsene absolutely refuses to put him in that role) We have no left winger.
And for God’s sake, please buy a midfielder with brawn. The current dip in form started when Diaby went AWOL. Another midfielder who is capable of hims driving runs and physicality would bring balance to the midfield.

We can buy Lionel Messi for all I care. Wenger will play him in goal or have Messi as the tea boy. Wenger will turn Messi into shit.
Wenger must get off the field and away from the dugout.
It won’t help to buy players, we need proper coaching staff.

Not really. He knows fuck all about football and must be trembling in his boots at what’s going to happen when Wenger goes. Wenger isn’t doing well right now but none of the media-touted replacements are going to touch us with a bargepole, not given the mess we’re in and the budget available to put things right. Not given the depressingness of the ownership situation either, I’d guess, and the poor outlook unless the stand-off between Kroenke and Usmanov is resolved one way or another.

On talksport yesterday some ignorant idiot pundit/journalist with a thrusting voice was demanding that Kroenke ‘go and get Guardiola’. Even assuming Kroenke has heard of Guardiola – which I doubt – how would he do that? What have we got to offer a top-class manager who’s used to winning stuff that would persuade him to prefer us to (say) Milan or Chelsea or City? Once our tradition of beautiful football and the talent of our kids would have made us a good fit for that sort of manager. Not anymore.

No doubt we need to introduce some class (Huntelaar would be lovely if you’re reading Arsene..) but it needs to be passionate players who are prepared to grind for 90 minutes everytime they play. I saw Wilshere and Coquelin (who was brought off after 60 minutes *facepalm*) as the only players who really seemed like they wanted it on Tuesday and that, in a side of 14 different players, is quite frankly not good enough. We have no one at the club who’s been there for a long time that can stand in the changing rooms and remind players which club they’re playing for and what it means to the fans for the men out there to at least look like they want a win more than anything else. It’s the players that are losing us matches, but the manager chooses which players to sign and play and right now, our squad as a whole doesn’t have the attitude, and with poor attitude, talent is going to mean very little.

Then obviously they aren’t doing all they can to motivate the players. Because there is no way the team that played on Tuesday wanted that game as much as Bradford did. And before you throw the “small club” card, that was our best realistic chance of winning a trophy so our team should have, as with every game, been giving everything they’ve got until the game is won. Am I wrong? Am I asking to much of players being paid more than 30-40k a week?

This EXPLAINS a lot to me. Why does a genius like Wenger preside over such a shit team.
Why does Walcott want to leave? Why does Sagna want to leave.
Why is Walcott going to come back to the Emirates with a pig ugly Manure shirt on and rip us two new assholes?
Why is van Persie wearing that disgusting shirt? Why is he twisting the knife, scoring goals and winning games for a team that should be near the bottom of the table?
Ask Wenger

and what is the point in going out all guns blazing in January and bringing in “allegedly” all these players that make us compete again ?

Why couldn’t this performance review been done last summer ? during the talks between Ivan, Wenger, and RVP at Wenger;s house ? WHY then, we failed to reassure RVP that we will invest and DID invest then?

And what should we do with the overpaid deadwood (that were ‘the best team i ever managed’) a few months ago ? put them on the shelf next to bendtner and Denilson for another 4 years while they collect their pay ?

Seriously .. the club needs a proper review .. and head’s should roll .. enough of no-tactics management .. and bs-spin doctors ! .. The gooner spring is starting .. and like that arab spring, things SHOULD change from the top !

Not necessarily. Loans are also there to free up space in the squad. Arsene is loyal to the players still at the club, which is why Chamakh, Squillaci and Arshavin are still in our premier league and european squads. So Bendtner, Park, Denilson could be offered to clubs with no contribution to their wages just to get them off the books for the season.

I am a member of both these groups and I wasn’t invited! I wasn’t even advised that it was happening! So they were carefully selected members then and not a cross section representative of the paying punters! Just people from Club level I expect!

I don´t think that we need defensive or offensive midfielders. We need some quality experienced wingers and also another proven goalscorer. Players must feel before every match, that the place in starting line up is not guaranteed.

Lewandowski is good but something about the way he plays doesnt make me think he’ll do as well in Arsenal.

If anything, we need a finisher with a bit more pace and great attacking movement and positioning, and holds the ball very well or handles good 1-2’s when getting through defenders, like Neymar or Aguero (not necessarily them, but like them). These sort of players suit an Arsenal attack much better in my opinion.

Who does everyone believe realistically were going to sign. Based on the fact that prices will be inflated in january and whos availible. based on what had been said. I have a handfull in my head that are on the market. we have to assume he will buy a winger to replace walcott, and a striker to help Giroud. Possibly a CM? any thoughts.
. Klass jan huntelaar 5-10mil
.Fernando Llroente 8-15mil
.Darren Bent 8-15mil
.Dan sturridge 10-15mil
.Nani 8-16mil
…..a few players to discuss possibly. I think some deadwood needs shifting first.

Shove Bent, Sturridge and Nani – all money grabbing mercenaries.
I will accept his apology when he signs Fellaini, Wanyama and any other striker that can score from 5 yards. We need some units in midfield/up front.

In all seriousness, and this makes me a very sad panda, I think we have to accept that Diaby’s now a write-off. Can’t see him ever making a significant contribution to the team. Not his fault and an absolute tragedy given his obvious talents, but it’s the cold, hard truth. The club need to accept it though and plan accordingly. Fuck that call-centre working cunt…

Agree. Love Diaby but I don’t ever see him healthy enough to help the team and that’s what we need. I’d love to see Younes Belhanda brought in to take that role or Yann M’Vila (I know his attitude has been an issue, but he’s still young and can mature under a great coach)

Add to that Wenger not knowing Berbatov was available on the cheap. I can understand not getting Dempsey, fine, but considering we sold those pricks RVP ….I am getting flashbacks of the despair I felt on transfer deadline day when nothing happened at all. Shit, I’m an armchair soccer maestro and I saw this load of shite coming way back then.

I doubt buying new players will stop the malaise troubling the team right now. Wenger can’t seem to get the best out of the good players he has at the moment. How will he get the best out of new signings? Will new signings end playing the same formation that doesn’t seem to work? Will new signings end playing people out of position where they aren’t making an impact? Will new signings end shitty substitutions? Will signings mean an end to selling our best players at the beginning of each season? Buying players is just a way of papering over the cracks. Wenger is a god at Arsenal but just can’t cut it anymore and is too stubborn to quit. Unfortunately no one on the board has the balls to fire him. What was that? Who will take over from him you say? How many people believed Wenger would be the best thing that happened to Arsenal when he first came to the club? All I know is a new manager with fresh ideas is needed pronto or the rot continues.

I think new signings will provide competition and make players perform better. Podolski, Cazorla, Arteta, Vermaelen, Giroud know there’s no one else to come in so have no fear of being dropped. Arshavin, Chamakh, Rosicky, Diaby, Ramsey, even the Ox at the moment are either injured or in poor form.

Wenger can actually DELEGATE and let Bould and Banfield coach to their respective strengths. Wenger can manage this lot and do the bookkeeping.
We can buy the best players in the world and Wenger will coach them into mediocrity.
If we had a proper coaching structure we wouldn’t need to buy players and we’d be competitive.
We are not competitive at the moment and I see a lot of wasted potential (ask Sagna why he wants to leave and its’ not because he is a money grabbing mercenary cunt)
If Sagna leaves I am going to poke out my eye with a rusty nail.

But I see this site now has a new hate figure. Not the ‘evil’ Usmanov or the even more ‘evil’ Dein but Stuart Robson.

If you follow the link on the above you can see Robson’s interview. It seemed to me to be entirely fair and he was pretty much right on every point. I’m glad to hear ex players come out and say ‘enough is enough’ as far as Wenger is concerned.

I’m fed up with hearing platitudes from ‘party loyalists’ like Bob Wilson and even Lee Dixon who still can’t face the truth. Robson even had the decency to point out that the fan base is split and many still – risibly -think Wenger is infallible. But a growing number think otherwise.

The Gooner is the main fanzine and Kevin Whitcher came out yesterday and said Wenger should go. Is Robson really to be abused for pointing out that Wenger has far too much power at Arsenal and acts – in effect – as a dictator overseeing the appointment of his own theoretical boss – Gazedis ?

What’s really wrong is that situation, not Robson pointing it out. Until this changes, we will get more of the same.

Wenger has lost the dressing room and he’s lost at least half the fan base. And the sooner people wake up to that the better.

I’ve never liked Robson but I agree with you. I heard the interview and thought much of what he said made a great deal of sense; as does the Telegraph article on Wenger’s reluctance to make use of Bould’s particular interests and strengths.

But I’ve been ranting about this for aeons, to general derision, my chief hobby horse being the way Wenger was sticking with Pat Rice (not a man to challenge the boss, though I expect he could place a mean cone) rather than bringing in a young, ambitious second-in-command, maybe from Holland or Germany, anyway someone with fresh ideas and with talents that were different from Wenger’s own. Why couldn’t we have the best of both worlds, I used to wonder, a manager with one set of interests and an assistant with a different set so they would challenge and complement each other?

The appointment of Bould was long, long overdue, and when it was eventually forced upon Wenger by Pat Rice’s retirement, it was a very conservative choice. An insider, a menial – surely his respectful deference could be counted on? Apparantly not; Bould alas has turned out to have thoughts of his own, and Wenger is cross.

There are many talented players out of contract next season we can sign pre-contracts with in just over two weeks. Lewis Holtby, Moussa Sissoko and Fernando Llorente.

Two players who would improve the first XI massively would be Yann M’Vila and Demba Ba. M’Vila is having his problems in France but that has nothing to do with his ability and Ba is a proven goalscorer when playing up front. Yes goals did dry up for him the end of last season but its no conincidence that it was due to him being shifted to right midfield.

I for one would like to take Joleon Lescott from Man City even for a 6 month loan. He was a major reason behind Man City winning the title last season, and seems to have fallen out of favour with Mancini. He can cover left back and could be available.

Do i think we’ll sign all of these players, probably not. It all depends on who can be shifted out of the club. But if there is £70m available, it can be done.

Rob. It’s the same with rvp. People slated the bloke for saying the club lacks ambition but he knew that we would not have signed the three players we did had he not already have agreed to leave, he also knew that theo was on his way out and probably song too. Yet he’s a cunt for saying the obvious. And theo will get the same treatment from this site and no doubt jack will at some point in the future when he realises this club is not about winning trophies and only about the money.

Didn’t he say ManUre was his favourite club as a kid *cough*. It was money, not just this ambition point. If a player wants a team to do well, they gotta be that difference. He was that difference… For one season, then lifted his skirt to higher wage offers. Hus own wife didnt wanna go to Manchester, yet their they are. Juventus are champions, but their wage offer? Around the same as Arsenal.

I regret to tell you that Wenger will buy no players in Jan 2013. His immovable fault is loyalty. I refer you to his support of Almunia & then Fabianski who were both responsible for the loss of points which damaged the team. The concept of friendly fire explains Arsenal’s decline: Gerviniho&Mertisaker continually undermine the team from within but Wenger remains faithful to them. WE have to end the policy of buying substandard players & playing them as though they were dependable when all they do is spread a destructive canker throughout the team.

There is actually no cake. We were going to buy cake, but we actually ended up with half-a-dozen sausage rolls that were on offer, but past their sell-by date and a pack of imported paprika flavour crisps that nobody likes.

Mr. Wenger, you have this January to save the remainder of your Arsenal career. For now, you have my support and I pray you’ll realise the need to strengthen both the first team, and the squad as a whole.

Fail to do this and finish outside the top four and I think your position as Arsenal manager will become untenable.

man i dunno. it looks like a players strike to me for years now. cesc wanted to leave, and i’d notice little stupid things he’d do on purpose… AS OUR CAPTAIN….like oh i dunno, leaping while he’s in the wall and throwing his arm up at a ball in the penalty area???? anyone besides me remember this? this situation at the club looks to me like some of my previous FM games, when i was too stupid or stubborn to change stuff when it wasn’t working, except this isn’t a game, this is something that a lot of us live for. the pompous board sits there, mr wenger doesn’t know how to instill the winning mentality back into players, stubbornly plays people out of position…screw this, i’m off…gonna listen to the doors “when the music’s over” because that sums up best …well everything

Was that “handball” in the pelanty area against Loserpool? He saved a goal and saved us some points cos the final whistle blew immediately after he handballed it away. Loserpool were FURIOUS!
Or are you talking about a different handball.
We don’t like cheating but…fuck Liverpool.
Up The Arsenal!

I am also frankly tired-tired of watching the same old shit nearly every week,tired of watching Gervinho amongst others,& so very very tired of listening to Wenger,the players & Gazidis spouting the same nonsense week in week out.Talk is cheap,actions speak louder than any words.Over to you Ivan & co.
(not holding my breath!)

I don’t think a change to that formation to accomodate everyone would work. 4 central midfielders and 2 strikers? No pace througout the team? Everything would be played in front of defenders as we are doing now. And we are having trouble breaking teams down now as it is.

The supporter frustration is increasing from season to another season because of the squad quality & quantity shortage. This is simple theory if you do not invest you can not earn or build up your business to make reasonable profit but if you always sold out you will end with empty stock. I am not complaining why you sold all the quality players but I am saying we need someone to fill the gap who worth with that money. I also hope the new year will bring new philosophy to the club.

The best way to success is to spend big. If u spend big, u will earn big. If Arsenal buy Falcao for £35m, they will easily recoup that money thru Jersey sales, ticket revenues etc.. But because our manager and board are retarded, we go and buy players like Park Ju-Young

Nonsense.
Spend spend spend.
Then complain about Chelsea and Mancinti because they can outspend us.
Bradford City (cost £7 500) beat us because they were coached, managed and set up better than us.
Wenger must wake up.

Yes, buy Neymar, we can play him at left back, then when he wants to leave (because he looks like a total tit at left back) we can call him a “money grabbing cunt” and blame Manchester City and Chelsea

From today’s blog (Thurs 13/12/2012):-
“Gervinho must have been watched countless times. Did nobody notice that he has a fatal flaw in his game, his shocking technique when it comes to the most basic of footballing skills – kicking the ball? It’s like a cricket team signing someone who can only bowl underarm”

The underarm comment is without doubt one of the funniest things my child like inner self has ever read, very very funny, cheers blogs!!!

There is nothing wrong with the quality of the individuals in our squad.

We are just NOT a team.

Putting a world class player to a functioning outfit, would improve it no doubt it but we are along way off being a functioning outfit at the moment and buying a world class play will just raise expectations that we cant currently meet.

We would be better using £30m to pay off the contracts of players who are currently doing fuck all for Arsenal football club and leave us with players who come to training everyday who give a shit.

Well said, you forgot to mention “put a decent coaching structure in place”

Remember the beginning of the season it was Bouldy this and Bouldy that?
Who is Bouldy? Where is he now?
His shape was nowhere to be seen when I saw Swansea casually strolling toward our goal last week.
Who is Bouldy? Where is he?

Sorry Ivan, but the only apology I’ll except from you is your resignation!

As long as things keep being run the way they have been then it’s highly likely you’ll be making a lot more of these apologies to the fans! At the end of the day it all rests on Arsene’s shoulders and if he’s not getting it done things need to be re-evaluated.

Don’t blame Gazidis for things that go on on the field. He isn’t responsible for the pathetic performances. Wenger is
Gazidis’ job is to get money. Do you have any complaints about that?
Good old Saffer Gazidis
Up The ARSENAL!

Don’t be so gullible: Gazidis also controls the purse strings – it’s just him and the rest of the board are quite happy for Arsenal to teeter along, just making the top 4, so they don’t have to spend big and they can keep the money in their pockets. I’m not a betting man, but if you really think that the majority of that £70 million will be spent next month, then you’re even more gullible. Arsenal’s board – with the collusion of Wenger – tipped the football club/business ratio in favour of business eight years ago.

It isn’t about the buys. The fact that this crop has been underperforming consistently raises some other questions. While it is not correct to question a manager doing a job (Since we don’t have the 30 year experience), I feel the fans should have atleast asked Gazidis the following questions
1. Why do we play in a formation which was suited to Cesc/Song/RvP when they are no longer in the club?
2. Why is Wenger so loathe to change tactics when his original tactics are not working?
Even if we buy Falcao/Huntelaar in January, they are not going to be any good because Wenger will stick them on the wing and keep Gervinho as the sole striker

Any chance I see cesc returning to arsenal is in 3-4 years time when he will won everything with barca and if he want to leave or the club doesn’t need him anymore he will come back because he truly loves arsenal unlike that little boy inside him. In his contract there is a clause that if he leaves barca it would be arsenal both teams agreed an cesc agreed to that clause.